Palo Alto Networks Benefitting from Cisco Sourcefire Acquisition

Network security vendor Palo Alto Network reported its first quarter fiscal 2014 earnings late Monday showing record revenue growth. Palo Alto CEO Mark McLaughlin also used his company's earning call as venue to take aim against rival Cisco Systems and its recent acquisition of SourceFire.

For the first quarter of fiscal 2014, Palo Alto reported revenue fo $128.2 million which is a 49 percent year-over-year gain. Looking forward, the company provided second quarter guidance for revenue to be in the range of $132 million to $136 million, which translates into a 37 percent to 41 percent year-over-year gain.

McLaughlin noted that his company is growing its footprint among global enterprise and is now installed with over 65 percent of the Fortune 100. That growth is in part being fuelled by competitive wins against Check Point as well as Cisco.

"I think to the extent there's any impact at all, it's been positive for us and that's primarily because we handily beat Cisco when we face them," McLaughlin said.

He added that his firm has also beaten Sourcefire in head-to-head competitions as well. From Palo Alto's vantage point, the combination of Cisco and SourceFire doesn't change anything from a technical solution perspective.

"We've also seen confusion in the market from the Sourcefire customers about what that deal means," McLaughlin said. "We've been able to develop hundreds and hundreds of leads from dissatisfied or confused Sourcefire customers. So at least from our perspective, it's been a positive."

New Tech

McLaughlin also revealed that Palo Alto has some new platforms in the works.

"In early calendar 2014, we expect to introduce our high-end 120-gig chassis for the data center and service provider market," McLaughlin said.

"Expect more innovation throughout the year as the technology gap between Palo Alto Networks and our competitors continues to widen as it has every year since we began providing solutions to our customers," McLaughlin said.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at Enterprise Networking Planet and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist